Argentina withdraws reward offer to help find ARA San Juan

Defense Minister Oscar Aguad briefed the families about the withdrawal of the reward and announced the Navy will be directly in charge of finding the submarine.

The Argentine Government has formalised the withdrawal of the reward offered to anyone who could find or provide meaningful information about the whereabouts of the submarine ARA San Juan, which went missing in the Atlantic Ocean on November 15, 2017.

A decree published on Wednesday in the Official Gazette explains that the 98-million-peso allurement announced last February to encourage the search has failed to fulfill its ultimate objective.

The document also underlined that in view of “... the time elapsed without achieving the desired success taken into account at the time of issuance of the aforementioned measure, it is necessary to revoke the aforementioned resolution.

The offer has turned out to be unsuccessful” to motivate the participation of private sector companies -national and international- in the operation, since, currently, the bidding process that was opened to hire a company properly equipped to handle the task has not yielded results.

Relatives of the 44 missing submariners who have been camping for two weeks in front of Casa Rosada, in Plaza de Mayo, to protest the unspeediness with which the Mauricio Macri administration is dealing with the case.

Defense Minister Oscar Aguad briefed the families about the withdrawal of the reward during a meeting in which he told them that a new tender would be held to choose a company in order for the search to continue. Aguad also explained that the Navy will now handle all procedures.

The ARA San Juan was traveling from Ushuaia to the Mar del Plata naval base in the province of Buenos Aires at the time of its disappearance. At first, ships from Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom took part in the search but eight months on only one Argentine vessel remains active in the operation. According to the relatives, it is not adequately equipped for the task.

Top Comments

will eventually surface - is that supposed to be a joke? - If so it was in very poor taste

Jul 13th, 2018 - 03:13 pm +1

Enrique Massot

An Argentine submarine vanishes with a 44-strong crew aboard, and a judge is investigating why the sub was sent in a mission in less than optimal mechanical conditions.

After initial searches failed to turn out results and the crew are presumed dead, the Argentine government first announces then relents from declaring a national mourning day.

Additionally, the Argentine government seems intent on talking -- and doing -- as little as possible and doing even less about this tragedy--the latest development being the above announced cancellation of a reward for finding the sub.

The relatives of crew members are still waiting for answers.

In the meantime, all @darragh found to say was to object about an unintended pun in my previous comment.

Darragh could not, however, beat @chronic, who won the 2018 Irrelevancy Award by posting a link to a blog sharing the results of a survey showing how many would be willing to fight for their country.

Strangely, said chronic found it worthwhile to congratulate Poles and shame Canadians.

Which is strange considering the poll shows 47 per cent of Poles would be willing to fight for their country. If we go by the survey, those to be congratulated would be Moroccans and Fijians, 94 per cent of whom vowed to fight.

In the same vein, it's strange that the awarded commentator would give Canada a 'shame' qualification when 30 per cent of citizens declared readiness to fight for their country when the Netherlands scored 15 per cent and Japan last with 11 per cent.

So which is what, chronic?

Jul 14th, 2018 - 04:31 pm +1

Enrique Massot

Reality is, the Argentine government is doing all it can to forget about the ARA San Juan. For many, the government appears to try not to find it. In spite of it, the truth about numerous irregularities existing even before the last submarine's mission started will eventually surface.